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REDEFINING PUNCTUATION IN ELECTRONICALLY-MEDIATED COMMUNICATION
ABSTRACT
Communication is increasingly taking place through written messaging using online and mobile platforms such as email, instant messaging and text messaging. A number of scholars have considered whether these texts reflect spoken or written language, though less is known about the role of punctuation. In fact, it is commonly assumed that punctuation on such platforms is either random or absent. This study explores the nature of punctuation (including emoticons) in electronically-mediated communication by analyzing sets of focus group data from adolescents discussing text messaging and by assessing a corpus of text messages sent by university students. Some usage patterns are gender-based. More generally, there is evidence that young people are developing coherent strategies for how such marks should be used in messages created on new digital media.
INTRODUCTION
Why do writers use punctuation marks? The history of punctuation (Parkes, 1993; Saenger, 1997) demonstrates an evolution not simply in the types of marks used but in their function. In the case of English punctuation, the major evolution was from rhetorical (also called correspondence) punctuation to grammatical (also known as logical) punctuation. English rhetorical punctuation derived from the classical model of using pointing to represent where to take a breath when reading a text aloud- and for how long. By contrast, grammatical punctuation marks give the reader clues as to the internal structure of sentences. This transformation went hand in glove with the transition to silent reading (Saenger, 1997) and the subsequent emergence of English print culture by the beginning of the eighteenth century (Chartier, 1989).
In more recent decades, punctuation (particularly in American English) has been undergoing a new set of changes. Written prose has increasingly come to record informal speech, rather than standing as an independent written genre (Baron, 2000). Evidence of this shift can be seen in the prose appearing in such previously formal publications as the New York Times or even Time magazine, or in the laissezfaire attitude towards proofreading written text (Baron, 2003). It is also manifest in the composition style of many university undergraduates (Danielewicz and Chafe, 1985), whose punctuation "errors" sometimes indicate a return to rhetorical punctuation. The move towards a casual prose style reflecting both informal speech and rhetorical punctuation provides the...